The evolution of psychology as a science(?)

You can purchase the book “The Evolution of psychology as a science(?): Metascientific and practical perspectives” on Amazon. Available in paperback or Kindle edition!

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Questions and doubts about the scientific status of psychology have been debated for a long time. It is soon going to be 150 years since the “birthday” of the field, conventionally described as the moment the first official “psychology” laboratory has been opened in Leipzig.

During this period, science, education, and research have undergone a lot of changes. Some affected the whole enterprise of science, whereas other transformations have been specific and unique to the field.

In this work, I analyze the historical development of the field of psychology and the evolution of its method, offering a comparison with natural sciences, philosophical perspectives on scientific methods and metascience, and a discussion of the unusually troublesome issue of measurement in psychology.

Particular emphasis is given to recently emerged problems that question the reliability of the current process of academic and scientific inquiry, for research in general and even more specifically for psychological and social sciences.

While it is argued that there are extremely serious issues and concerns regarding current academic reliability and that psychology in particular has a lion’s share of problems, this work doesn’t aim to be dismissive or hostile towards the scientific status of psychology nor its inquiry.

On the contrary, I am hopeful for future development. I argue that steps forward have been taken and that there is reason to think psychology is capable of reaching the status of a truly empirical science. It is argued however that the journey is far from being completed.

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You can purchase the book “The Evolution of psychology as a science(?): Metascientific and practical perspectives” on Amazon. Available in paperback or Kindle edition!